Monday, May 30, 2011

Freedom...

Today as I write the blog I would be remiss not to salute the men and women that have fought, are fighting, and will fight so that you and I can enjoy our freedoms.  Oh that those that tear down the ones who fight for our country would recognize that because of these men and women they even have the freedom to gripe!

Today I also want to salute another group of soldiers.  I salute Christian soldiers; men, women, youth, and children that fight for the truths that God has given us in His Word!

Those of you that fight for His standards!  Those that are flying His Banner over your marriage, family, churches, and communities!   Yes, we are in a ‘spiritual war’ daily and it’s not getting any easier to fight.  Especially when we are losing loved ones to the lies of the enemy forces.  May I encourage those of you, as well as myself, that have a spouse, children, a family member, and/or friends that have succumbed to the lies and pleasures of this world to ‘keep walking’.  Don’t give up and don’t give in!

Galatians 5:1 says:  Christ has set us free to live a free life. So take your stand! Never again let anyone put a harness of slavery on you.  (TMSG)

Don’t give up because we already have the victory!  Don’t give in by allowing the world to dress you!!!!!!!!   God has told us how to dress daily…Ephesians 6:10 tells us to put on the whole (full) armor of God!  Every day we as Christian soldiers have a choice to put on the Armor of God or to let the world dress you.   Who is dressing you???? 

Switching gears, we now have 22 missionary women sponsored for the trip!  I get excited when I see God working on behalf of these ladies!  He is so Faithful!  Please continue to seek the LORD and give accordingly. 

The team is working hard in regard to preparations and getting more and more excited! It is so fun each week to watch the emails that float back and forth between the team regarding different aspects of preparation.  This week has been a busy one!  Thank you so much to all of you that are on board with this ministry and thank you for loving the missionary women and their families!

Have a great week and remember to not be running around naked!  Put on the whole (full) armor of God!  If you don’t…..the world will dress you!  Be intentional about what you wear!

Love you all,

His,
Vickie

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Egg Salad...

I don’t know how things work at your home but probably a lot like ours even if you have kids. We get into a routine even if it is a crazy routine! In our home it usually looks something like this….. Get up and go the bathroom. Mom is making coffee. Take my daily ritual of pills. Mom and I both sit down and do our daily Bible reading and then read out of whatever devotional book we are each interested in for now. Then the news channel, Local and World, gets clicked back and forth between to see if we have been raptured or not. (oops, tehehe) I fix our breakfast. I then go take my shower, iron my clothes and head to the hair and make-up area. One particular morning as I was coming through the kitchen from the shower my mom was cooking something. As I’m walking through I say to my mom, “What are you making?” She responds, “Egg Salad”. This conversation happens in one fluid motion because truly I was passing through the kitchen. “Is it for us or the church?” I ask as I head on into the bedroom. “For us” she replies. When I get to the bedroom I have this amusing thought…so I go back in the kitchen with a grin on my face and I tell my mom, “You know you have a Christian household if you have to ask who the food is for that is being cooked!!” My mom looked at me and said, “I was thinking the very same thing!” We both had a good laugh!!!
I shared that story that night with my friend, Mandy, from church. Our home group meets in their home. She immediately smiled and proceeded to tell me that her kids had just recently asked her the same thing regarding some pies she had made. They were even more excited when they found out they ‘actually’ were getting to keep a WHOLE PIE for themselves instead of it all going to the church! It’s the little things, isn’t it! Ha,ha,ha,ha

I don’t think that all food dishes and baked goods being sent to the church is truly the plumb line for a Christian home. But let it be a simple reminder to us that our kids are watching our actions and how we invest our resources and time. Don’t forget to leave a pie for the family lest your gesture is only for the ‘eyes of man’s approval’.

Ok, Costa Rica is on the radar and things are getting wildly crazy with the team as they are working on all the details and fun things that we get to do in preparation for the trip. I will have to say that we are doing something on this trip that we have “never” done before. Can’t wait to hear the feedback from the ladies after the retreat! I’m still praying about whether I’m actually going to give it a try. Hmmmmm You missionary women from Costa Rica reading this…you will see!

We still have 30 missionary women to sponsor so please prayerfully seek the LORD. I realize that there are many things going on in our world today all around us as Tornado Victims and Flood Victims try to get some sense of order back in their lives. I realize that we have hungry children to be fed in our communities, states, nations, and countries. We have people with needs throughout this world and that isn’t going to change. There are needs everywhere we turn our hearts. But, I have said this before and I will say it again over and over……Our God is Sufficient to meet all the needs. Please take time to seek Him about giving to this trip. Also, be obedient to WHEREVER He wants you to invest your prayer, time and resources. There is ENOUGH because HE is ENOUGH!

Love you guys….Please let us know how we can pray for you here at Pure Joy!

His,
Vickie

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

What's that Smell...

Can you even begin to tell the stores behind the answer to that statement “What’s that Smell!”? And/or the question “What’s that Smell?”
Well, let me add one to it! Last night when I got home from our Costa Rica Prayer time meeting, which was awesome because we actually Skyped the team members in Austin, TX at the end of our time as they were getting ready to start their Prayer time! This is when I love technology! If you don’t know what Skype is look it up on-line because it is so fun to bring your friends and family right into your home even though they are thousands of miles away!!

Anyway, back to that smell! When I got home last night I went in and fixed a cup of coffee and went out to the bathroom/laundry room. When I walked in my mom was there and I’m like “What’s that Smell!” Can you smell it she asked? Hmmmmmm --- well sort of since it about knocked me out and was reason enough to have an oxygen mask! Then the next famous question “Where’s that coming from?” Ever notice how those two questions usually partner in a situation like this? So we began the proverbial search. You are in the bathroom/laundry room area so you are going to start with - is there a bathroom or shower problem? No luck. Then you are looking around everywhere for something dead. No luck. Next question…..is that smell any place else, outside or another part of the house? No. So, you KNOW by the smell something is DEAD! You know what room it’s in and you can’t find anything dead lying around. Well, I told my mom, I can’t imagine what it is and where it is. Then my Mom remembers a situation she had with the dryer the other day. Yeah that’s right….all of a sudden something is coming to mind like……When she turned the dryer on she heard a thumping sound as if you were drying tennis shoes! But she didn’t see anything in the dryer that would cause that so she just continued on. Well, tomorrow we will have to have Cousin Doug come out and look at it because there is something dead in this room and it’s coming from the dryer area. We both agree and go to bed.

Today (Tuesday 17th), I’m headed to work and I get a call from my mom. Cousin Doug has made his way down to the house and turned over the washing machine to find a 3ft. plus cotton mouth snake the size around of a golf ball caught up in the dryer motor! DEAD no doubt! PRAISE GOD!! Seems that he or she must have made it through the dryer vent last week when we had all the flooding going on. Probably was just looking for a safe place to rest from all the water. Wrong Choice! I’m sure it never knew it would experience Death by Dryer! Ha,ha,ha .

As I drove on in to work with that whole story on my mind I thought about how we are kind of like that snake sometimes. We recognize we need a break, or a rest, and or a place to get away to. But if we are not surrounded with the right people, places, or resources we can end up in more trouble than we had to start with. I see that a lot in my counseling ministry and I’ve seen it in my own life before as well. So, I encourage you…KNOW the people, places, and resources that are healthy for you to get away to and rest. If you don’t you could end up with “Death by Dryer”!

Don’t forget Costa Rica. Pray for all of us to know all the details God would have us attend to and pray for finances to come rolling in!

Love you guys…

His,
Vickie

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Always the affirmation...

As we prepare for the trip to Costa Rica I never cease to be amazed at how God’s hand is at work to provide affirmation that He is in the details of this trip. He does that for every trip that Pure Joy goes on but I’m always amazed at how He does it! I love that He does it because it is such an encouragement to me personally, to the team, to the missionary women and to all that invest in Pure Joy with time, prayer, and resources. For me it just affirms that He knows, is in charge, has watch care over the journey, is in all the details and that He cares.

You might be wondering what brought that on and why I’m saying that this morning - a bright sunshiny, no rain, Tuesday morning of the week. Let me share with you a situation that happened. I got an e-mail at the end of last week forwarded to me from Patty letting me know that there had been a donation made. When I saw the name on the email I realized the person that made the donation was from my Sunday school (SS) classroom. I assumed the person had made a donation to Pure Joy for the missionary women in Costa Rica until Patty and I visited a little more and she told me the donation had been made toward a team members cost for this trip “specifically”. I then assumed it was for a woman in our SS class that is traveling overseas with Pure Joy for the first time. Then the BIG AFFIRMATION came……. The donation was toward one of the team members coming out of Austin, TX. What? How does this person in my SS class in Conway, AR know one of our team members out of Austin, TX when I just met that team member myself over 3 weeks ago when I met with a group of women there to see if they were interested in being a part of the Costa Rica trip? Also, I hadn’t even told my SS class any information about team members at this point! How did she know? Well….

I had to contact the team member out of Austin to ask her something that God had put on my heart about her role on our trip to Costa Rica and I asked her at the same time if she knew this person. She said yes, that is my aunt, my mom’s sister. I tell her you aren’t going to believe this but your aunt is in my SS class in Conway, AR. At this point, we are both cracking up – like NO WAY, absolutely NO WAY! The team member didn’t even know I knew her aunt and that we were in the same SS class. I didn’t know she had an aunt in AR. Isn’t that so God and so wild! I met this person one time and now find out her aunt is in my SS class. That is so God!! SO GOD! I’m so excited. What are the chances of that? ……..With God, 1 in 1! Amen!

That is just one of the many things that happen as these trips start to unfold. Remember I shared with you last week to just get ready and hang on because once the team is put together then God just starts showing up everywhere! I also, got an email from friend of Pure Joy asking if she could give a gift to the 50 missionary women and what it was. I told her absolutely! Of course I can’t tell you what it is because the missionary women coming to Costa Rica are reading this blog too, and it is a surprise!!

As always I want to encourage you be praying for the missionary women, pray for the team, pray for God to show up more and more. We have 20 missionary women sponsored so far – we still have 30 to go. We had 19 when the blog went out last week. Now we have 20 sponsored as of the writing of this blog. There’s nothing more exciting than watching God at work when we are headed to another opportunity to minister to our missionary women overseas! There is no greater Joy than watching Him bring in the resources for the trip, reading the stories that come from you, team members, and the missionary women themselves as they track the blog. It is all so God!!!! So, get in the prayer closet and seek the Lord and see if you should be part of giving for this trip! Don’t hold back those resources! Pour them into the kingdom work that God’s doing through this ministry!

I love you guys and thank you for being apart of the Vision for Pure Joy! Just think…..we are already having God fun and we haven’t even left the country yet!!!!!!

And if God is doing sweet and amazing things as you journey with us…send me your stories.
vickie@purejoyinternational.org

His,
Vickie

Monday, May 2, 2011

Costa Rica 2011 …….Here We Come!

To all the ladies that have signed up for the Costa Rica trip you will be excited to know that your Costa Rica team is formed!  By next Monday you should be able to go to the web site and check us out!  Please be praying for your team as we are praying for you collectively and in our personal prayer times!

To those of you that are followers of Pure Joy, it is time to Rise Up and seek God on how He would like for you to be involved in this particular trip!  I love it that we get to journey with so many of you out there!  There are those of you that I still marvel at your commitment to help sponsor the ladies for these different retreats.   As I shared with you before, we have approximately 20 women sponsored out of the 50 that are coming.  So, let’s watch those numbers increase weekly starting with this week!  I get excited just thinking about the stories that will start coming in and the testimony of how HE works with fulfilling the ministry vision!  

I would be lying to you if I didn’t tell you that sometimes I think, “LORD, things are really kind of crazy and unsafe in this world and getting crazier.  The economy is crazy.  People are struggling at every level.  Are you really going to keep bringing women forward that their husbands will let go on these trips, and single women that go, and are You really going to keep putting it on people’s hearts to sponsor these missionary women and give of themselves regarding gifts, etc.,  LORD, are you?”  Yes!  It is His Vision! And HE will do it!    As long as single women, married women, married women with families are willing to GO share the Gospel of Jesus Christ in foreign lands,  Pure Joy will go!  Our theme for Costa Rica is “Give the World a Drink!”  We at Pure Joy want to go and fill up and refresh those women overseas so they can “Give the World a Drink” because that is what God has called them to do!   Satan would love for us to look at the world from a physical perspective but NO, we are NOT going to….We have been given Spiritual Eyesight and we won’t give up helping each other!  Some plant the seed, some water, some harvest!  Yet…..GOD GETS THE GLORY! 

Also, please remember all the families and individuals in need from the storms of this past week here in the South.  Lots of prayer needed, resources needed, helping hands needed, and for many, a Savior is Needed!  Pray that many will come to know Him in the middle of this destruction. 

Love you guys…..
His,
Vickie